With an average two hundred ninety two sunny days per year (in downtown LA, according to this page), you have to be lucky NOT to find at least partial sunshine on a weekly excursion anywhere in the county. And since, you know, the grass is always greener etc…, I personally long for imperfect weather, and boy was I spoiled during this walk in the Pleasant View Ridge Wilderness, in the San Gabriels. It was all atmosphere, which reminds me of a scene in Hotel du Nord

Edmond (Louis Jouvet)…J’ai besoin de changer d’atmosphère, et mon atmosphère, c’est toi.

Raymonde (Arletty) : C’est la première fois qu’on me traite d’atmosphère ! Si je suis une atmosphère, t’es un drôle de bled! Les types qui sortent du milieu sans en être et qui crânent à cause de ce qu’ils ont été on devrait les vider ! Atmosphère?! Atmosphère?! Est-ce que j’ai une gueule d’atmosphère? Puisque c’est comme ça, vas-y tout seul à la Varenne. Bonne pêche et bonne atmosphère!

(my imperfect translation):

Edmond:…I need a change of atmosphere, and you’re my atmosphere.

Raymonde: Never been called atmosphere before. If I’m atmosphere, you’re some kind of town! Guys who act tough and brag about being from the hood but haven’t done shit should get kicked out. Atmosphere! Atmosphere! Do I look like atmosphere to you? If that’s how it is, go to La Varenne all by yourself. Happy fishing and happy atmosphere!

From Hotel du Nord (1938), by Marcel Carné

The only downside, I thought as I walked along the pleasant, and sometimes narrow ridge, not knowing where or how far I’d fall if I misstepped, is not cashing in on the views, which can be pretty spectacular from these parts. But I’d gotten my fill on last week’s trip to Will Thrall peak, same general area, just two or three miles west.

While foggy days are scarce in LA, film crews are not. In fact, I bet that, during any given year in the city of angels, days when you run into the latter outnumber the former. Luckily the outfit who were filming on the Angeles Crest Highway left a couple of parking spots at Islip saddle, next to the craft service table. And they were not interested in the forest at all; Gaston and I had that all to ourselves again.

Here’s a little mood setting:

Soft footsteps on a

bed of damp needles

caressed by a rolling autumn fog

And motivation,

I love to travel a forest trail

Through a fragrant tunnel of green,

Or the path that clings to a towering cliff

Hanging heaven and earth between.

Will Thrall, from his poem “To Travel a Forest Trail”

 

Walking Project 134_autumn fog – Mt Williamson and boxcar ridge from chris worland on Vimeo.